Moon Knight Background

I think it's safe to say just about everyone is hyped for the release of Moon knight, even people who don’t know much about the character ( I mean Oscar Isaac can get just about anyone to do anything), that said I think it’d be good to take a look at the source material as this is a very important character to very many people.

Moon knight made his first appearance in 1975 debuting in Werewolf by Night #32 and was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin. He received his first solo story as a Marvel Spotlight (issue #28-29) in 1976 this was the first story that retconned his original association with the evil committee to be an undercover mission, therefore making him a hero instead of antagonist.

His first ongoing series launched in 1980 which expanded his origin and allowed for appearances in other comics. In 1985 Moon knight’s character was repurposed and here is when they showed him having mental health issues, now diagnosed with DID the original story referred to his struggle as schizophrenia.

Moon knight’s civilian identity is Marc Spector who gains the attention of Khonshu (Egyptian moon god), after being used as a vessel for Khonshu Marc starts showing symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder that creates other identities for him, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley. After the appearance of his third identity he is sent by his parents to a psychiatric hospital. After being released for his fathers funeral he escapes and joins the military. In the Marines he becomes well trained in combat and boxing, after being released from the military he becomes an underground boxer and eventually becomes a mercenary with his brother Randell. After being left for dead before a statue of Khonshu, Marc is revived and fully healed. Randell resents his brother for winning the moon gods favor and Marc was chosen to be Khonshu’s Knight of Vengeance, also referred to as the fist of Khonshu.

I think the best thing about Moon Knight being a show before they hopefully fold him into the MCU is that his comic book character had a lot of interactions with other heroes I would love to see brought to the screen and the serial format is an easier way to test those characters out before giving them bigger roles (Silver Sable please!). The safest bet as far as predictions for this show go is that they will bring in Jeffrey Wilde, he’s young and therefore has longevity, he trains with Moon knight and then becomes his adversary (more of just an annoying prick in his side but ya know, whatever they need to do to get this guy on screen) and he’s our door to bring in the Secret Empire into the MCU. We might also see the Knights of the Moon (which would be a weird backdoor way to introduce Ghost Rider but it still works), or the Thunderbolts (which might give us green goblin/hobgoblin/demo goblin) but mostly what I'm hoping for is a lot of mental health focus. What I enjoyed most about Wanda Vision (and what other people really really hated) was that it was centered on emotions and regaining control over yourself and going through grief and depression more than it was about the action, and I think that would be a more interesting and meaningful route to take with Moon knight at least at the beginning.

This show offers a lot of opportunities for expansion in the MCU as well as the opportunity to dive into topics they have avoided like the plague until recently. I have very high hopes for this Disney+ Series and I will be reviewing as it goes on!